It was an early Friday morning for Day Two of the Whitby Silver Stick tournament. The Alliance teams got into action at around 8am and there was lots to take in. By the end of the 2nd day of action, three out of the five Alliance teams were still alive for a spot in the quarter-finals. Not only that, but two teams still have a shot at winning their divisions with one being a bit of a surprise based on how the season had played out to this point.

Sun County Comes Up Big In Tournament Opener

In their first game of the tournament, Sun County came out blazing against a tough Soutern Tier team. The Panthers started out the game more shorthanded then they were expecting. With Josh DiCarlo out for the tournament, Sun County began the game without leading scorer Stephane Crevier as he appeared to have an equipment issue.

Without Crevier, the Panthers were still able to strike first thanks to Hunter Hutchins banging home the loose puck in front of the net. Crevier returned to work a Panther powerplay when the Admirals turned it around a scored a shorthanded goal on a nice breakaway, sliding it underneath and outstretch Aidan Pitre.

Prior to the flood, 02 born Zane Dalpe capitalized on another scramble in front of the Admirals net to give Sun County another lead, this time 2-1 this lead would hold until the flood.

Starting the third period off strong, Marcus Joughin, probably the Panthers strongest player in this game, put Sun County up 3-1 and they never looked back. An empty netter gave Sun County a 4-1 win and their first win of the tournament. Joughin was big in this game along with Everett Parent. Aidan Pitre, would is getting his work in this weekend, had another great game for the Panthers.Click here for full article

After cruising through Thursday afternoon traffic on the 401 and spending a ridiculous amount of time trying to find a parking spot, finally I was ready to take in my favourite tournament of the year, the Whitby Silver Stick.

This is the 2nd year that I have attended this tournament and after one day the Alliance has already surpassed what they did in last year’s tournament. I remember last year, there were a lot of high hopes for teams such as London, Waterloo and Windsor. Needless to say, the Alliance teams all laid an egg and none of the six teams that entered the tournament advanced to the quarter-final round.

Before I even got to the arena, the Alliance was 0-1 after the Elgin-Middlesex Chiefs, in the first Minor Midget game of the tournament, fell to the Southern Tier Admirals. It was a tough start for the Chiefs, especially considering that Friday morning they will have to try and contain Jack Hughes and Graeme Clarke as they take on the Toronto Marlboros.

The first full game that I was able to take in was the Waterloo Wolves and the always tough Mississauga Rebels. Let’s just say, the day didn’t start off on quite the greatest foot.

The game actually started in favour of the Wolves. The forecheck was putting lots of pressure on the Rebels defense and they were using some speed to stretch the offense. The Wolves opened up the scoring when Nathan Allensen took and pass and ripped it top corner from the faceoff dot and it appeared that the Wolves were in business.Click here for full article